Introductory

Session
Child Psychology
Lecture 01
Francesca Bocca del Monferrato
francesca.bocca@me.com
What will we achieve?
Evaluation
Synthesis
Analysis
Application
Comprehension
Knowledge
 What is a child?

• Child history
- Pre-Islamic Arabic
- Ancient Roman culture
- Middle Ages in Europe
- Postmodernity
• Childhood in Islam
 What is Psychology?
• Concept of mind and self in Neuroscience and
Psychoanalysis
• Quranic terminology about the psyche
- Nafs
- Rooh
- Fitrah
- Akl
 Methods of Social
Sciences
• Islam, research and statistics
• Experiments
• Correlation
• Survey
• Case study
• Naturalistic observation
• Obtaining divine guidance through research
 Issues of Social
Sciences
• Sampling
• Statistics
• Ethical choices
• Statistics
- Descriptive
- Inferential
 Prenatal Development
• Development from conception to birth
• The effect of alcohol, mother stress and extra-marital
sexual activity on the foetus
• The Sunnah for newborn babies
Fitrah and the Newborn
• Definition of Fitrah
• Implications of Fitrah on Psychology
• Criticism of the “behaviourism” in the light of Fitrah
• The newborn
• Sunnah practices for the newborn
 Breastfeeding
• Breastfeeding as a paradigm of the Islamisation of
Psychology
• Islamic evidence concerning breastfeeding
• Modern scientific evidences concerning
breastfeeding
- Effects on the baby
- Effects on the mother
 Social development:
Attachment
• Timeline of social development
• The earliest form of development: maternal
attachment
• Types of attachment
• Attachment in Islam
 Social development:
THE MUSLIM family
• The basis of parenting
• Role of father and mother
• Gender roles
• The home environment
- Prayer
- Teaching and learning
- Removing bad influences
 Social development:
Parenting style
• Parenting styles
- Authoritative
- Authoritarian
- Indulgent
- Neglectful
• Signs of bad parenting on the child
 Social development:
Problems & divorce
• Family problems
- Poverty
- Conflict
- Unemployment
- Orphans
• Divorce
 Social development:
Siblings & peers
• Pressure from peers
• Pressure from the educational system
• Pressure from the society
• Islamic view of friendship
 Social development:
The ummah
• The problem of racism
• The problem of nationalism
• Belonging to the Ummah
• Psychology of prejudice and racism
• Child psychology and racism
Emotional development
• Harlow’s theory of emotional development
• Affection from
- Parents
- Friends
- Ummah
 moral development
• Beginning from an early age
• Obedience to parents and family unit
• Being role models
• Pride & love of Jihad
• Building self esteem
 moral development:
Character problems
• Shyness
• Fear
• Inferiority complex
• Envy
• Anger
 moral development:
Social & antisocial
• Personality traits
• Antisocial personality disorder
• Prosocial behaviour in Islam
• Antisocial personality disorder
 faith development
• Belief in Allah
• Belief in the Angels
• Belief in Prophets and Messengers
• Belief in books and revelations
• Belief in day of resurrection and Hereafter
 physical development
• The brain
• Patterns of development
• Factors affecting physical development
 cognitive development
• Piaget’s theory
• Vygotsky’s theory
• The role of others in cognitive development
 intelligence development

• General & specific intelligence

• Measures of intelligence: IQ
• The biology of intelligence
• Is intelligence nature or nurture?
• Socio-cultural aspects of intelligence?
• Intelligence in Islam
 Emotional
intelligence
• Emotional intelligence
• Divisions of emotional intelligence
- Self-awareness
- Managing emotions
- Motivating oneself
- Recognising emotions in others
- Handling relationship
 language development
• Insights from the Quran
• Theories of language
• The brain and language
• Phases of language development
 motivation
• Islamic concept of motivation
• Primary & secondary motives
• Evaluation of motivational theories in Islam
• A suggested Islamic model of motivation
 Media & pop-culture
• Introduction
• Effects on physical development
• Effects on emotional development
• Effects on moral development
• Effects on cognitive development
• Effects on islamic development
• Role of entertainment in Islam
 puberty
• Introduction
• Definition of puberty and adolescence
• Psychology of puberty
• Changes in the brain
• Sexuality
• Adolescent cognition
• Self-esteem and Islamic identity
 Mental disorders
• Defining disorders
• How to diagnose: the DSM
• Diagnosis or over-diagnosis?
• Classes of disorders
- Mood disorders
- Schizophrenia
- Personality disorders
- Anxiety disorders
 Developmental
disabilities
• Common developmental disabilities
- Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder
- Autism
- Dyslexia
• Disabilities in Islam
What we still need
Study tips
 Assignments
1. Five hadith with psychological wisdom (max. 5
pages)
2. Two actions in the Sunnah whose wisdom can be
found in the light of psychology. (max. 2 pages)
3. Which personality traits of the Prophet have a
psychological wisdom? (max. 2 pages)
4. Project of what we still need in child psychology
(max. 5 pages)